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Walter Isaacson, writer of the recently released biography of Steve Jobs, has revealed that the late Apple supremo was working on ‘reinventing’ three key areas of technology: television, photography and textbooks.
And despite the famed secrecy surrounding the development of Apple products, it seems Jobs may have been uncharacteristically candid with Isaacson — although we shouldn’t expect the writer to reveal any of the details he discovered.
Isaacson told the New York Times that Jobs identified television, photography and textbooks as three things he ‘really wanted’ to take on. On the subject of television, for instance, Jobs told his biographer that he’d ‘licked it’, going on to say that, ‘There’s no reason you should have all these complicated remote controls.’
Last month, when the biography was published, details within suggested that Apple was (or is) working on an integrated Apple TV: an actual television set with Apple TV software inside, a super-streamlined user interface and seamless syncing with iCloud and all the user’s Apple devices. And Isaacson’s comments to the NYT only go to reinforce this view that Apple is well on the way to reinventing the humble gogglebox, much in the same way that it ‘reinvented’ the music player with the iPod and the mobile phone with the iPhone.
Isaacson won’t be revealing any specifics on the products Jobs told him about, however: ‘I didn’t go into details about these products in the book because it was implicitly Apple’s creations and it’s not fair on the company to reveal these details.’ Ah, Walter, you big tease.
The writer also spoke about Jobs’ well-documented ‘petulance’, saying that it was driven by his passion for perfectionism and a desire to create ‘perfect products’: ‘He could be perceived as a jerk because he was brutally honest with people… It wasn’t just churlishness.’
Isaacson revealed that Jobs wanted no control over the book, was remarkably honest and open and even encouraged him to seek out his adversaries for their opinions.
Would you like to see Apple launch an integrated TV? And what do you think about Jobs’ dream to rework photography and textbooks: has Apple already achieved that with the iPhone’s (pretty decent) camera and the iPad’s ebook functionality, or do you want to see more? Let us know below.
